NINETEENTH CENTURY LITERARY MANUSCRIPTS

Part 5: Papers of Caroline Bowles (1787-1854) and Robert Southey (1774-1843) from the British Library, London

Chronology

1770

Birth of William Wordsworth.

1772

Birth of Samuel Taylor Coleridge.

1774

12 Aug 1774. Birth of Robert Southey (henceforth RS), son of Robert Southey, a farmer in the Quantock Hills, and Margaret (née Hill), in Bristol. RS is raised in Bath by his aunt, Miss Elizabeth Tyler.

1786

6 Dec 1786. Birth of Caroline Anne Bowles (henceforth CB), daughter of Captain Charles Bowles of the East India Company, and Anne (née Burrard), at Buckland Manor, near Lymington, Hampshire.

Publication of Vathek by Beckford.

1788

RS sent to Westminster school.

1789

The French Revolution. 14 July – Storming of the Bastille.

1790

Wordsworth goes on a walking tour of Europe.

1791

The Massacre of the Champs de Mars and rise of the Girondins in Paris.

1792

RS expelled from Westminster for protesting against flogging. His maternal uncle, Rev Herbert Hill, gets RS a place at Balliol College, Oxford. He pursues swimming, boating, and reading. Writes epic poem on Joan of Arc. Monarchy is abolished in France.

1793

Louis XVI executed. Execution of Girondins by Jacobins in Paris. Reign of Terror. RS becomes wary of the Revolution.

1794

RS is introduced to Coleridge by Allen. Execution of Danton. Overthrow and execution of Robespierre. RS and Coleridge write The Fall of Robespierre. Coleridge converts RS to pantisocracy and they plan an ideal community on the banks of the Susquehanna. RS is disowned by his aunt, Elizabeth Tyler. Joseph Cottle, an inexperienced Bristol bookseller, gives RS £50 for Joan of Arc, which RS revises with additions by Coleridge. Publication of Poems by Bion and Moschus by RS and Coleridge (1794 & 1795). RS writes Wat Tyler.

1795

RS clandestinely marries Edith Fricker, one of six daughters of Stephen Fricker, a manufacturer, from Westbury. Coleridge is married to her sister, Sara Fricker. Coleridge and RS argue. Coleridge meets Wordsworth and the two strike up a great friendship, living close to each other in Nether Stowey and Alfoxden in Somerset. RS visits his uncle, the Rev Herbert Hill, in Lisbon. Edith stays with her sisters and maintains her maiden name.

1796

Publication of Joan of Arc by RS. Coleridge commences publication of The Watchman (see Eighteenth Century Journals, published by Adam Matthew Publications).

1797

Publication of the Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge. Coleridge visits Germany. RS returns to England. RS writes Madoc. Publication of Letters written during a short residence in Spain and Portugal, by RS, based on his visit to the Peninsular, 1795-1796.

Charles Watkyns Williams Wynn, a former schoolfriend, gives RS an annuity of £160. RS briefly attempts to pursue a career in the legal profession. Publication of Minor Poems by RS. RS starts Thalaba.

1798

RS moves to Westbury in Hampshire.

1799

RS edits Annual Anthology. RS writes preface to Chatterton’s works.

1800

Coleridge settles in Keswick. RS falls ill and goes to Portugal with his wife. RS finishes Thalaba and compiles his History of Portugal.

1801

RS settles in Keswick with Edith, but leaves for Dublin for a brief spell as secretary to the Chancellor of the Irish Exchequer. Publication of Thalaba. Death of Charles Bowles, father of CB.

1803

RS and Edith move to Greta Hall, Keswick, a house shared with the Coleridges. Publication of RS’s translation of the Spanish prose romance, Amadis of Gaul.

1804

Coleridge leaves Keswick for Malta and Italy.

1805

Publication of Madoc by RS. Wordsworth completes The Prelude.

1806

RS relinquishes Wynn’s annuity when his friend is married. This is replaced by an equivalent government pension.

1807

Publication of RS’s translation of Palmerin of England. Publication of Specimens of the Later English Poets, Letters from England by Don Manuel Alvarez Espriella and Remains of Kirke White by RS.

1808

Coleridge returns to Keswick in ill-health, addicted to opium. RS has to provide for both families. Publication of RS’s translation of the Spanish prose romance, The Cid. RS engaged as regular contributor to the Quarterly Review by Scott, a position he maintained until 1839.

1809

RS purchases the whole of Greta Hall, Keswick, allowing Coleridge to remain. Coleridge publishes The Friend. RS edits (and writes much of) the Edinburgh Annual Register from 1809 to 1815.

1810

Publication of the History of Brazil by RS commences (1810-1819.) Publication of The Curse of Kehama by RS.

1812

Publication of Omniana, by RS.

1813

Publication of the widely acclaimed Life of Nelson, by RS. RS made poet-laureate after Scott declined the honour.

1814

Publication of Roderick, the last of the Goths, and Carmen Triumphale by RS.

1816

Publication of The Poet’s Pilgrimage to Waterloo by RS. Death of Herbert, RS’s eldest son.

1817

Death of Anne Bowles, mother of CB. CB starts writing poetry under the signature “C” and “A”. Much is later published in the newly founded Blackwood’s Magazine. Publication of Wat Tyler by RS. Publication of Biographia Literaria by Coleridge.

CB sends RS a copy of Ellen Fitzarthur and RS becomes an admirer of her work and a friendly correspondent.

CB survives on an annuity of £150 paid by Colonel Bruce, her father’s adopted son.

1820

Publication of Ellen Fitzarthur: a Metrical Tale, by CB. CB meets RS for the first time and he proposes that she should help him complete Robin Hood. RS made DCL by the University of Oxford. Publication of Life of Wesley by RS.

1821

Publication of The Vision of Judgment, an apotheosis of George III, by RS.

1822

Publication of The Widow’s Tale, and other poems, by CB and a second edition of Ellen Fitzarthur.

1823

Publication of The History of the Peninsular War by RS commences (1823- 1832). CB visits RS and family for a second time at Greta Hall.

1824

Publication of The Book of the Church by RS.

1825

Publication of A tale of Paraguay, by RS.

1826

Publication of Solitary Hours, by CB. RS elected MP for Downton in Wiltshire, but disqualified for not holding a large enough estate.

1829

Publication of Chapters on Churchyards, by CB, in complete form. It appeared in Blackwood’s Magazine, 1827-1828. Publication of All for Love, Sir Thomas More, and The pilgrim of Compostella, by RS.

1830

Publication of The Life of Bunyan, by RS.

1831

Publication of Essays Moral and Political by RS, a collection of his articles for the Quarterly Review. Publication of The Cat’s Tail by CB.

1833

Publication of Tales of the Factories, by CB, protesting against working conditions. Publication of a Life of Cowper by RS. Publication of The Lives of the Admirals by RS.

1834

Death of Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Publication of The Doctor, by RS.

1835

RS receives increased government pension of £300pa. RS declines baronetcy.

1836

Publication of The Birthday, by CB. Henry Nelson Coleridge praises CB as “the Cowper of our modern poetesses.”

1837

Death of Edith Southey. Publication of Poetical Works, by RS.

1839

CB accepts RS’s proposal of marriage, even though his health is declining seriously. CB moves away from her beloved New Forest home. CB is opposed by most of her stepchildren.

1843

Death of RS on 23 March 1843. He is buried in Crosthwaite churchyard. He leaves CB £2,000. CB returns to Lymington in the New Forest.

1847

Publication of Robin Hood, with other fragments, by RS and CB.

1849

Publication of The Life and Correspondence of RS by the Rev C C Southey, his son (6 vols, 1849-1850) and Southey’s Common-Place Book, edited by John Wood Warter (4 vols, 1849-1850).

1850

Death of Wordsworth.

1852

CB awarded a crown pension of £200pa.

1854

Death of CB on 20 July 1854. She is buried in Lymington.

1856

Publication of Selections from the Letters of RS by John Wood Warter (4 vols, 1856).

1867

Publication of The Poetical Works of Caroline Bowles Southey.

1881

Publication of The Correspondence of Robert Southey with Caroline Bowles, edited by Edward Dowden.

Selected Biographies

Jack Simmons, Southey, 1945.
Geoffrey Cornall, Robert Southey and his Age, 1960.
Mark Storey, Robert Southey: A Life, 1997.
Virginia Blain, Caroline Bowles Southey, 1786-1854: The Making of a Woman writer, 1998.

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